Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction.
The sin of cruelty to the brute creation
There is no necessary reference in this verse to the inferior animals. We use itmerely for our accommodation. That there is such cruelty requires neither proof nor argument. What persuasions should urge to guard against this cruelty in every form?
1. The affecting consideration that the lower animals have not the power of expressing and complaining of their wrongs.
2. Their subserviency to the comfort and happiness of man.
3. They are the objects of God’s peculiar and providential care.
4. Cruelty to animals is utterly inconsistent with the spirit and law of Christianity. (David Runciman, M.A.)
Job’s example
Job was an excellent pattern to all princes. He was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame, and a father to the poor, and no doubt he was a mouth also to the dumb. Such a prince the mother of Lemuel wishes her son to be. She exhorts him to do justice and judgment to all his people, but to regard with peculiar tenderness those unfortunate men that were in danger of losing their estates and lives by reason of accusations brought against them. If they were unable, through ignorance, or awkwardness, or fear, to plead their own cause, she would have him to be their advocate, and to plead everything that truth and equity would allow on their behalf. But charity to the poor, and clemency to the accused, must not interfere with the due administration of justice. It is the business of princes, in the administration of justice, to see that the poor do not suffer. (George Lawson, D.D.)
